Publications

Social Support for Physical Activity Measure

A Proportional Public Health Response to Physical Inactivity

In Brief This commentary discusses about the physical inactivity that is one of the leading causes of poor health in the United States and worldwide. A proportional response is justified, but a thorough reconsideration of the priority of physical activity in public health is required.

What Do Middle School Children Bring in Their Bag Lunches?

Background. Limited documentation exists on nutritional characteristics of bag lunches, although about 30% of adolescents take them. This study describes: (a) the prevalence of different types of foods in bag lunches, (b) the number of kilocalories, percentage of kilocalories from fat, amount of total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sugar, and (c) the differences related to gender and grade. Methods. In 24 middle schools, observations were made on 1,381 bag lunches (about 58 per school) during one semester. Results. The most common bag lunch components were beverages and sandwiches. Fruits were more common than vegetables; non-chip snacks and chips were more common than cookies, candy, and cakes/pies. Bag lunches averaged 596.2 kcal (29.7% from fat), 20.8 g of total fat, 6.2 g of saturated fat, 32.6 mg of cholesterol, and 21.3 g of sugar. Boys' bag lunches had significantly more kilocalories, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and percentage of energy from fat than girls' lunches. Significant grade differences were found only for total fat and cholesterol, with seventh graders bringing more than sixth graders. Conclusion. More research on the nutritional quality of foods brought to school in bag lunches is important for gaining a better understanding about how to improve students' nutrition.

Psychosocial and Environmental Correlates of Adolescent Sedentary Behaviors

To determine correlates of sedentary behaviors in adolescents through the examination of psychosocial and environmental variables.The study used a cross-sectional design to evaluate an ethnically diverse clinic-based sample of 878 adolescents who were 11 to 15 years old. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were stratified by gender to assess correlates of sedentary behaviors occurring on the most recent nonschool day (television viewing, computer video games, sitting listening to music, and talking on the phone).For girls, age, family support, television/video rules, and hills in the neighborhood were associated with sedentary behaviors. Furthermore, psychological constructs such as self-efficacy, enjoyment, change strategies, and pros and cons of change emerged as correlates of sedentary behaviors. A moderator effect revealed that the proportion of girls in the low-BMI group decreased with increased self-efficacy, whereas the proportion of girls in the high-BMI group did not vary significantly by self-efficacy. For boys, age, ethnicity, BMI, cons of change, and self-efficacy were associated with sedentary behaviors.This study provides evidence of factors associated and not associated with adolescent sedentary behaviors. Similar to physical activity, measures of specific psychosocial constructs of sedentary behavior demonstrated important associations. The results highlight the need for additional examination of the correlates of sedentary behavior to determine which correlates are mechanisms of behavior change.

Supplementary figure 1 from Characterization of HCC Mouse Models: Towards an Etiology-Oriented Subtyping Approach

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Molecular mechanisms of cell death: recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death 2018

Active children use more locations for physical activity

We examined frequency of use of 11 physical activity (PA) locations among 539 San Diego children (45.0% males, 41.2% Latinos; mean±SD age: 6.6±0.7 years) and explored associations between location use, PA and potential correlates. Parents reported child's use (visits/week) of 11 locations. Child PA was assessed by accelerometry (subsample n=178). The most frequently used locations (mean±SD times/week) were homes (3.2±2.3) and parks/playground (1.6±1.3). Children used 4.0±2.0 locations in a typical week, and made a total of 12.5±6.8 visits/week to all locations. Latinos used fewer locations regularly (3.6±2.1 vs. 4.3±1.9 locations; p<0.001) and had fewer visits to all locations (11.4±7.4 vs. 13.2±6.4 visits/week; p=0.003) than non-Latinos. Accelerometry-assessed vigorous PA (VPA) was positively associated with the number of locations regularly used (ß=0.04, p=0.03) and total visits to all locations among Latinos (ß=0.09, p=0.005). Parental PA support was positively associated with locations used (ß=0.64, p<0.001) and visits to all locations (ß=2.56, p<0.001). Children using a greater variety of locations did more VPA. Latinos making more total visits to all locations had higher VPA.

Cohesion and Adaptability in Mexican-American and Anglo Families

This article reports data from a community sample of Anglos and Mexican Americans concerning two dimensions of family functioning: cohesion and adaptability. The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales-II (FACES) were used with a sample of 294 parents with school-age children who were taking part in a large community-based health promotion project. In addition, an acculturation measure was used in order to test for differences that might be attributable to intracultural variation among Mexican Americans. No significant differences in mean scores or distributions were detected between ethnic groups for cohesion or adaptability, even when acculturation was controlled. Next, a circumplex model was used to test for differences in distribution within a 16-cell matrix of family types. It was found that the distribution of scores for both ethnic groups fell predominantly within two quadrants of the model that predict well-functioning families during this stage of the life course (childrearing, with children reaching adolescence). Some differences were found in the distribution of scores into the three regions of the model (balanced, midrange, and extreme), with Anglos somewhat more likely to be represented in the balanced region and Mexican Americans more likely to be either midrange or extreme. However, tests for acculturation effects indicated that intracultural variation among Mexican Americans accounts for these differences, with low-acculturation respondents more likely to score outside of the balanced region. Implications of the findings are discussed within the explanatory framework of the circumplex model and related to national findings.

FBP1 is a nonenzymatic safety valve that curtails AKT activation to prevent insulin hyperresponsiveness

SUMMARY Insulin inhibits gluconeogenesis and stimulates glucose conversion to glycogen and lipids. How these activities are coordinated to prevent hypoglycemia and hepatosteatosis is not clear. Fructose-1,6 bisphosphatase (FBP1) is rate controlling for gluconeogenesis. However, inborn human FBP1 deficiency does not cause hypoglycemia unless accompanied by fasting or starvation, which also trigger paradoxical hepatomegaly, hepatosteatosis, and hyperlipidemia in affected individuals. Hepatocyte FBP1-ablated mice exhibit identical fasting-conditional pathologies along with AKT hyperactivation, whose inhibition reversed hepatomegaly, hepatosteatosis and hyperlipidemia but not hypoglycemia. Surprisingly, fasting-mediated AKT hyperactivation is insulin-dependent. FBP1 prevents insulin hyperresponsiveness, independently of its catalytic activity, by interacting with AKT, PP2A-C and Aldolase-B (ALDOB) to specifically accelerate AKT dephosphorylation. Enhanced by fasting and weakened by elevated insulin, FBP1:AKT:PP2A-C:ALDOB complex formation, which is disrupted by human FBP1 deficiency mutations or a C-terminal FBP1 truncation, prevents insulin-triggered liver pathologies and maintains lipid and glucose homeostasis. Conversely, a complex disrupting peptide reverses diet-induced insulin resistance.

Reliability and Validity of a Computerized and Dutch Version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a newly developed computerized Dutch version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Methods: Subjects ( N = 53) completed the computerized IPAQ at three specified times. Subjects wore a CSA activity monitor during seven full days and simultaneously completed a 7-d physical activity diary. Finally, respondents filled out a paper and pencil IPAQ. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficient ranged from 0.60 to 0.83. Correlations for “total physical activity” between the computerized IPAQ and the CSA activity counts were moderate (min: r = 0.38; kcal: r = 0.43). Correlations with the physical activity diary were also moderate (min: r = 0.39; kcal: r = 0.46). Correlations between the computerized and the paper and pencil IPAQ were high (min: r = 0.80; kcal: r = 0.84). Conclusions: The computerized Dutch IPAQ is a reliable and reasonably valid physical activity measurement tool for the general adult population.

Regulation of the pituitary-specific homeobox gene GHF1 by cell-autonomous and environmental cues

Prospective Analyses of Relationships Between Mothers’ and Children’s Physical Activity

Background: Longitudinal patterns in the development of physical activity (PA) and potential causal relationships between parent and child PA are examined. Methods: Autoregressive models were used to examine bidirectional prospective paths between parent and child PA in a longitudinal sample of 351 Anglo and Mexican American families. PA was assessed independently in children and parents over a 13-y period. Results: There was little evidence for a causal path from mother PA to child PA. Conclusions: Modeling does not appear to be the primary mechanism by which parents influence children’s PA behavior. Studies examining relations between parent and child behaviors should not rely on a single respondent for assessing both parent and child PA or on cross-sectional correlational data to make unidirectional causal inferences about determinants of child PA.

Immunoprecipitation of endogenous MEKK1 and kinase assay

Prevention of fat-induced insulin resistance by salicylate

Insulin resistance is a major factor in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and may involve fat-induced activation of a serine kinase cascade involving IKK-β. To test this hypothesis, we first examined insulin action and signaling in awake rats during hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps after a lipid infusion with or without pretreatment with salicylate, a known inhibitor of IKK-β. Whole-body glucose uptake and metabolism were estimated using [3-3H]glucose infusion, and glucose uptake in individual tissues was estimated using [1-14C]2-deoxyglucose injection during the clamp. Here we show that lipid infusion decreased insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and activation of IRS-1–associated PI 3-kinase in skeletal muscle but that salicylate pretreatment prevented these lipid-induced effects. To examine the mechanism of salicylate action, we studied the effects of lipid infusion on insulin action and signaling during the clamp in awake mice lacking IKK-β. Unlike the response in wild-type mice, IKK-β knockout mice did not exhibit altered skeletal muscle insulin signaling and action following lipid infusion. In summary, high-dose salicylate and inactivation of IKK-β prevent fat-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle by blocking fat-induced defects in insulin signaling and action and represent a potentially novel class of therapeutic agents for type 2 diabetes.

Developing Relationship Learning

No abstract is provided for this article.

The HECT Family of E3 Ubiquitin Ligases: Multiple Players in Cancer Development

A TLR2/S100A9/CXCL-2 signaling network is necessary for neutrophil recruitment in acute and chronic liver injury in the mouse

We have identified TLR2 and S100A8/S100A9 as key regulators of hepatic CXCL-2 expression and neutrophil recruitment. This novel TLR2-S100A9-CXCL-2 pathway may be of use in development of new strategies for selectively manipulating neutrophils in liver disease without impairing normal wound healing and regenerative responses.

Inactive Australian College Students' Preferred Activities, Sources of Assistance, and Motivators

a cross-sectional survey was sent to students at four college campuses to assess self-reported physical activity, sources of assistance to exercise, and motivators for regular activity . The study focused on 864 (40%) of 2148 students surveyed who were classified as inactive. Attributes of inactive male and female college students differed by gender. such differences may be used in tailoring health promotion interventions to increase physical activity.